DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Summary
This communication is a First Office Action Non-Final Rejection on the merits.
Claims 1 – 5 are currently pending and considered below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 – 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Butts et al. (Hereinafter Butts) (US 2015/0220991 A1) in view of Sakurada et al. (Hereinafter Sakurada) (US 2020/0098007 A1).
As per claim 1, Butts teaches the limitations of:
a speed control apparatus including:
an advertisement information acquisition unit configured to acquire advertisement information to be displayed at an advertisement display unit provided on a mobile object (See at least paragraph 25 and 31; vehicle-based cameras (not pictured) may take photographs of passers by near the display vehicle 101, which may be analyzed to determine different information about the passers by. For example, by analyzing an image of a person, logic in the display vehicle 101 may determine that the person is a middle-aged male wearing a shirt of a particular football team. In response, an ad for football or the team may be displayed on a window 105 of the display vehicle 101 nearest to the person. … FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 corresponding to step 310 to identify a display vehicle, according to one embodiment. Generally, the distributed application may execute the steps of the method 400 leverage different techniques in order to identify a vehicle with a transparent display that may be used to display targeted advertisements or other information to a driver or passenger of a target vehicle, or individuals outside of the display vehicle.), and when to display the advertisement on the mobile object (See at least paragraph 16 and 21; FIG. 1 is a schematic 100 illustrating external messaging in the automotive environment, according to one embodiment. Generally, the schematic illustrates a scenario where a transparent display in one vehicle is used to display an advertisement directed at people in a second vehicle, and possibly at people outside of both vehicles. As shown, a display vehicle 101 is positioned in front of a target vehicle 102. The vehicles 101, 102 may be stationary, or traveling at some speed. As shown, the windows 105 of the vehicle 101 are equipped with transparent displays, which allow digital images to be displayed on the windows 105 such that they are only visible from the outside-in, and not from the inside-out. Although not shown, the windows of vehicle 102 may also include transparent displays. Logic inside the vehicles 101, 102 may be configured to cause one or more advertisements targeted to the driver (or passengers) of the vehicle 102 to be displayed on the windows 105 of the vehicle 101 based on an advertising context. … vehicles such as the vehicle 101 do not display advertisements until the vehicles are stopped, or travelling at a speed that is lower than a predefined speed threshold, such as 5 miles per hour.), but does not explicitly teaches the limitation of:
a control unit configured to control speed of the mobile object based on the advertisement information.
Sakurada teaches the limitation of:
a control unit configured to control speed of the mobile object based on the advertisement information (See at least paragraph 134; The nearby vehicle finding part 3032 of the server apparatus 30 receives the location information, information about the destination, and information about the vehicle speed from the advertisement target vehicles 20 and find advertisement target vehicles 20 that will be present in the vicinity of an advertisement displaying vehicle 10 during a period over which advertising information is scheduled to be displayed (which will also be referred to as “scheduled display period” hereinafter) on the basis of the received information. Specifically, for example, the nearby vehicle finding part 3032 determines the route of each advertisement target vehicle 20 from the location information and the destination of the advertisement target vehicle 20 and conjectures the locations of the advertisement target vehicle 20 during the scheduled display period over which advertising information to be selected next will be displayed from the speed of the advertisement target vehicle 20. Then, if the route of travel of an advertisement target vehicle 20 is the same as that of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 and the conjectured locations of the advertisement target vehicle 20 during the schedule display period fall in the vicinity of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10, the nearby vehicle finding part 3032 identifies this advertisement target vehicle 20 as a vehicle present in the vicinity of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10. Even if an advertisement target vehicle 20 is present in the vicinity of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 at the time when the server apparatus 30 find it, there may be cases where the advertisement target vehicle 20 will be separated from the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 in the future period during which advertising information is scheduled to be displayed actually due to differences in their speeds and travel routes. To prevent such situations from occurring, the nearby vehicle finding part 3032 according to this modification is configured to conjecture advertisement target vehicles 20 that will be present in the vicinity of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 during a period over which advertising information to be selected next is scheduled to be displayed from the route of travel and speed of each advertisement target vehicle 20. The nearby vehicle finding part 3032 obtains the travel route of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 in advance and determines the speed of the advertisement displaying vehicle 10 from the locations of the travelling advertisement displaying vehicle 10 that are obtained periodically to determine its locations during the display period.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include a control unit configured to control speed of the mobile object based on the advertisement information as taught by Sakurada in the system of Butts, since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
As per claim 2, the combination of Butts and Sakurada teaches the limitations of:
in which the control unit controls at least one of speed or a course of the mobile object based on the advertisement information and information on a person in image data obtained by imaging surroundings of the mobile object (Butts, see at least paragraph 30, and Sakurada, see at least paragraph 72).
As per claim 3, the combination of Butts and Sakurada teaches the limitations of:
in which the information on the person includes information on an attitude of the person in the image data with respect to the advertisement information displayed at the advertisement display unit (Butts, see at least paragraph 62).
Regarding claims 4 – 5:
Claims 4 – 5 are rejected using the same rationale, mutatis mutandis, applied to claims 1 – 3 above, respectively.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Goto et al. (US 2020/0143422 A1) discloses presenting targeted content to vehicle occupants on electronic billboards.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IG T AN whose telephone number is (571)270-5110. The examiner can normally be reached M - F: 10:00AM- 4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Aniss Chad can be reached at (571) 270-3832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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IG T AN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3662
/IG T AN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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